Growing Evidence That A Party Drug Can Help Severe Depression
The latest study shows that ketamine, an FDA-approved anesthetic, can act in a matter of days for some people who don't respond to traditional antidepressants. Those drugs don't work for 40 percent of patients. "Most of the published data for mental health patients have been with single treatments," says Dr. Dan Iosifescu, the director of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program and an associate professor of psychiatry at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "In animal studies, where animals have been given very high doses of ketamine for very long periods of time, there has been some nerve cell changes that are related to possible toxicity," said Dr. Iosifescu, who was not involved in the study.
-Dr. Dan Iosifescu, Associate Professor, Psychiatry, Director of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
